CDC aware of potential pandemic

WASHINGTON - Two years ago, some of the nation’s top public health officials attended a 100-year anniversary conference about the 1918 ‘Spanish flu’ pandemic at Emory University in Atlanta. The conference was hosted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The May 7, 2018, conference was supposed to determine lessons learned from the past. There were sessions titled “Nature Against Man” and “Innovations for Pandemic Countermeasures.” Implicit was the understanding that the 1918 pandemic was an awaiting catastrophe for the 21st century. Long before the coronavirus emerged in China, and spread to nearly every country on Earth, the 2018 conference offered proof that epidemiologists at the CDC and others were aware that a new pandemic was poised to strike. They braced themselves for what may be coming. “Are we ready to respond to a pandemic?” asked Dr. Luciana Borio, head of the now dissolved global health section of the National Security Council. She answered her own question: “No.” Dr. Daniel Jernigan, who heads the CDC’s flu division, later hosted a webinar entitled “100 Years Since 1918: Are We Ready for the Next Pandemic?” Viewed today, that presentation comes across as a disturbing preview of what the entire world is facing in 2020. (Source: Yahoo News 04/02/20) https://news.yahoo.com/two-years-before-coronavirus-cdc-warned-of-a-coming-pandemic-090054010.html